Building a fixer upper style reclaimed wood Farm Table

As most of you know I come from a big Italian family.  My sister, her family and my niece and nephew live on our street. My aunt lives one street over from us.  And my parents live within walking distance from us. In addition to having cousins and other family members so close it’s a given we all gather for a big family dinner at least twice a week.  We never had enough room with our last 6′ table.  It was a pain bringing a card table up and down from the basement each week! We all decided that I needed a large farm table to seat 14.

Inspiration At A Cost

I searched antique stores and found a fabulous french farm table that cost $3500.  We were not going to spend that much on a table. I had never sank that much into a piece of furniture and wasn’t about to.  Our big open kitchen dining area was the perfect setting for a large farm table.  

Finding Fabulous Legs

So I decide that I would make one.  I knew that I needed to start with some incredible legs.  By chance, I was at an antique/junk store and found a broken extending table that happened to have five legs and was was missing all it’s leaves. It was marked $150 and she gave me the broken table for $100. This was a perfect project for my father and I to tackle.

How to build a farm table

We use the fifth leg as a center support for the 12 feet long table. We purchased reclaim floorboards from the reHouse shop for $175. and used the top of the old table for the apron supports around the legs. The floorboards that we used on the top were only 1/2 inch thick and once placed on the top of the frame of the table looked small and unporportionate. I needed it to look massive. Unfortunately, we had to use new wood to edge the table.  I loved its rustic charm but it was a bit dark, massive and hated the contrast of the old and new woods. Plus my house needed more color. I decided to paint the table red but it needed to look like it had been painted years before with several coats of color coming through. I recruited the kids help me haphazardly paint the table.

Adding Color

I started with a navy blue paint getting into the grooves in the cracks. We then used a turquoise color also making sure to penetrate all the nooks and crannies.

Adding Layers of Charm

For the top coat of red I used and old brush and lightly gave it it’s last coat making sure that I did not cover up there first two coats.  I then lightly sanded and distressed the table exposing some of its natural wood. We use this table now for every kind of project and if it gets scratched or something spills it just adds to the patina and charm. Over the years the chairs have changed but the table isn’t going anywhere. It is truly the heart of the home since we enjoy entertaining so much and no one’s ever left at the kids table! xoxo Amie